Well, another election down. I won’t bore you with rehashing the results. You probably know them all too well. McAuliffe wins in Virginia, Christie wins in New Jersey, New York City goes for the progressive, Detroit goes white, Alabama chooses the moderate Republican over the Tea.

One might take from this that the Tea Party had a bad night. Both in Virginia and in Alabama the tea party candidate was way way out there in Righteous land and both were defeated, in one case by a Democrat whom nobody really liked (McAuliffe) and in the other by a more moderate version of conservatism.

Of course the Tea Numbskulls will not learn the RIGHT lesson from all this. Rather they are already grousing that Cuccinelli was in reality not really Right enough. And if they are saying that, well what can you expect? While there are grades of insanity no doubt, from mild to severe, insanity pretty much says it all doesn’t it? No matter the degree, one is not going to let a certified one babysit the kids or take your money to bank for deposit.

This is actually good news for the rest of the country who still holds on with all its might to the last shreds of sanity allowed one in this magnificent country of denial. As I always say, the crazier they are, the saner we look by comparison. By the way a huge huge thanks for Toronto and your own brand of crazy with his band of happy pipers, the illustrious still mayor, Rob Ford. You make America look good there pal.

Any the way, where does all this leave us?

Well, it seems to me that it leaves us chomping at the bit for the big old 2016! I means it is likely to be even more a hoot than 2012 was, and who can forget all the fun we had then? We had wonderful Michele with her big ole eyes and her “win” out of Iowa or was it the straw poll that she bought with lots of corn on the cob and music entertainment? And then there was Herm and his 999 and Ickbekistan? Who can forget that Perry forgot and made famous that lovely word, “OOPS”? Oh gosh, and there was Newt and his plastic hair wife, and zoos. And Willard, ahh, dear Willard and we had dogs on roofs, and 47%, and elevators for cars, and trees just the right size. Those were the days.

And yet, I smell similar fun coming up.

Even though old Rinsed Penis has abolished all those weekly debates, there will still be enough.

Let’s look at the contenders.

First we got Randy Paul. Randy has a bit of an issue with stealing other people’s work, as in plagiarism. Randy didn’t like the accusation when it came from Rachel Maddow, but well the rest of the lazy press when shown the pathway to success, started scrambling through Randy’s written chit, and pumping it into a plagiarism-finding site, and whoa, did they get lucky. Lots of speeches, lots of “editorials” in various newspapers, and even a good chunk from his book lifted from the Heritage Foundation, which publishes enough propaganda to choke an ox, having given up the word “think” in think tank. Nowadays Wikipedia probably does have more professional bonafides than it.

Randy, confronted with the avalanche of proof of his cheating, does the Anthony Weiner defense: there may be more of this “stuff” out there still, and tells us he will “restructure” his group of workers. This all suggests that it is staff in his office responsible which is interesting to note, since it does suggest that Randy never even wrote his own book.

But sadly this is not the first time Randy has told us that he may have a rather unique understand of ethics. Witness his gleeful explanation of how one can succeed in med school. Lie to other classmates, telling them that you have a copy of the test, which you provide freely, and letting them study for the wrong stuff, in the hopes that they will do badly and you will look better on the curve and score a better grade. All without having to know anything! Hurrah. What’s not to like about this? Oh cheating? No, Randy says, no it’s not cheating, just I guess free markets at work?

Throw in a little self-aggrandizement in the form of making yourself “board certified” by organizing your own Board of Ophthalmology, in which your wife is the Vice President and his father in law was Secretary and which operates out of a mail box. See, Randy didn’t want to take the recertification required by the state, so he just certified himself.

Now if all that leaves you a little queasy when it comes to Randy’s sense of ethics, just think of all the fun we are all gonna have come 2016? As a bonafide wanna be candidate for President, Randy is surely gonna face some fun questions from the other candidates and the press.

And then there is Teddy the Latin Cruz. Teddy is a dominionist, which means he and his daddy and others like them, (Sarah, dear girl, included) further warp and twist Genesis in the bible. In one of the creation stories God tells Adam that he has dominion over the earth. Well, Teddy takes that chit seriously, and intends to dominate it, as in Christian supremacy. That stuff about separation of church and state be damned. He is after all, as Daddy says, one of the Kings who is entitled to get the money, and the power, and rule. Meanwhile they will get rid of everyone who disagrees with a vengeance.

Teddy might also find it hard to live down his tentherism ties. Actually his 9th and 10th erism ties. Basically tentherisms contend that most all of the laws of the US are unconstitutional, since the assume power not directly given to the government by the Constitution. (read literal in the extreme). This is states rights talk, plain and simple.

Mike Lee, Senator from Utah, who showed Cruz how to win an election from a conservative Republican by running farther to the right of them, is a huge champion of this as well. Basically (all your poor hanger-on teabuzzards don’t read this lest you pass out), these guys want to repeal EVERY and I do mean every social safety net program ever invented such as social security, medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, and on and on. Most government agencies would be dissolved such as the EPA and presumably things like the FDA, FAA, FCC, and so forth.

Well, then we get to Christopher Christie the big winner from Tuesday. That makes him the frontrunner to many. But of course, he has to get through Randy and Teddy, and God knows how many other loons such as Allen West, Sarah, well the mind boggles at the thought.

Christie has his own issues: an explosive temper that borders on bullying which apparently is fairly easy to set off. You know that Randy and Teddy will be doin’ just that. And there is the fact that Willard Romney liked Christie and wanted to make him his VP, until his vetting team uncovered enough that that option was no longer viable. Now the Romney robot may have been a bit gun-shy give just how stupid Sarah turned out to be, but lordy, there are suggestions that Christie may play a little fast and loose with the government contracts and friends issue.

This may all be fairly small, but you can be sure that the field of loons the GOP is likely to field will go fast and furious in exploiting each and every alleged faux pas to its logical conclusion. And of course the red meat blogging community who is hell-bent for a REAL PATRIOT to be the candidate, well, they will again be doing the work for the regular press and feeding them every located skeleton found.

Which all, goes to say. . . .

It’s going to be a bumpy ride. Thank you Ms. Davis!

PS: Where big GOP bucks come in here is anybody’s guess at this point!

The jobs numbers came out this morning. Everything is on the uptick. The upturn in the economy continues unabated. This in spite of the naysayers who of course claim that things would be even better if we would do things their way (the business way). They offer no proof of this, but they assure you that if you would just lower corporate taxes to zero and remove all regulations, boards of directors across the country would be voting to “hire as many as will fit in the building” and things will be rosy in no time.

This engenders the usual arguments between Keynesians and Hayekians. If you are not so sure you know who these men are, or what they stand for, well, I have a good place to start.

I am not sure when this came out on PBS, but it is based on the book of the same name written by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. That came out in around 2003 I believe.

It is not for the faint of heart. It’s a six-hour committment. But on the upside, it’s well done and satisfies all the usual desires of one watching a documentary. You can get the DVD or you can watch the entire thing online, and I’ll provide the links at the bottom.

Let me caution you that I don’t at all agree with much of what they say, or at least the inferences they, I think deliberately, urge you to draw. They have a very definite point of view and they avoid a few facts that might cut against their opinion. (Pay especial attention to who is promoting the show at the beginning). That said, it provides a pretty good explanation of what Hayek believed and what Keynes believed. It provides a good foundation to understanding the basics that you will need should you choose to really try to get a handle on what the Krugman’s of the world believe is best for the economy versus the now deceased Milton Friedman.

We’ve only watched the first part, so I’m leaving off any further comments lest I influence your viewing. I’ll post a piece on my views in a couple of weeks or so. So if you are interested, put your feet up and grab a beer or cuppa joe and begin watching. It is entertaining and informative, just not accurate in all respects in my view. Links at the bottom of the page.

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Republicans continue to waste taxpayer money on crap that has nothing to do with economic recovery. Over the Governor’s veto, Arkansas just passed a law making it illegal to abort a fetus after twelve weeks. That’s of course unconstitutional on its face and seems destined to offer the SCOTUS an opportunity to either overturn Roe or restrict it. Idaho’s twenty week law was just struck down by a federal district court.

Meanwhile, in Mississippi, another bastion of free thought, the senate has just passed a bill that would allow school prayer again, most especially before classes start (during morning announcements) and before athletic events. Students would also be allowed to freely discuss religious faith issues during class time. This is also unconstitutional on its face.

What is ironic here, is that the very people who support this crap are the same folks who are hellbent to tell you that Democrats and the present administration have no faith let allow adherence to the Constitution and are violating it every day. Of course, they are not. They are just redressing their grievances that the damn document doesn’t say what they want, and making sure that it’s altered to accomplish that.

It all depends, is their answer to “do you believe we should follow the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court?”

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The water pressure dropped severely yesterday in Washington D.C. as John McCain and Lindsey Graham both spend a long time washing off the icky after finding themselves supporting the black guy in the White House against the strange man from Kentucky, Ru Paul, I mean Randy Paul on the drones issue. Two finer hawks were never born than McCain the man who continually drove planes into the ground, and the Lindsey, a man who one can’t begin to imagine in a uniform except as part of a sexual liaison in the bedroom.

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The best response to anyone who tries to tell you that homosexuality is a “choice” is to ask them what was the date when they “chose” to be heterosexual. What them sputter and try to get out of that dilemma.

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I think Romney’s the right choice for speechifying at CPAC. After watching his interview with Wallace the other night, it appears he’s still living in the delusions that caused his defeat. That should be right up the alley of the teabibbers doncha think?

“It’s always the wacko birds on right and left that get the media megaphone.”

I mean I hear the Oxford Dictionary calling to get that photo of John to place next to the word: IRONY.

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From Don of Massachusetts:

Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.

Perhaps the most amusing moment during Hillary Clinton’s testimony before Congress yesterday, was her encounter with the weird Randal. Son of the famous Ron Paul, the Libertarian who whines that nobody gives him his props as a serious candidate, Randal represents the fair state of Kentucky, where of course, his stable mate is Mitch “the Turtle” McConnell.

Now Randal has delusions of being president. He plans to carry the GOP banner in 2016, after fending off the likes of Bobby Jindal and Marco Rubio, two who can at least claim foreign-ness as a bonus point. Randal can only claim stupid (his under understanding of the Constitution is rather stellar), with a strong dose of crazy mixed in.

Yesterday, Randal tried to go toe to toe with Hillary. And he hitched up his jammies and told Hillary that well you can read it for yourself:

I think that ultimately with your leaving you accept responsibility for the worst culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11. And I really mean that. Had I been president at the time and I found that you did not read the cables from Benghazi, you did read the cables from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post. I think it’s inexcusable.

Of course, I was hoping for something utterly dry like, “Well, on so many levels, Senator, we are assured that THAT won’t be happening!” But she is a diplomat after all.

Worst tragedy since 9/11? Wow, that leaves out Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, Aurora, Sandy Hook, and a half-dozen tornadoes I can think of. It leaves out the fairly senseless deaths of all those killed in Iraq and probably a goodly number of those killed in Afghanistan.

When you go for the killer punch Senator, it’s so tempting to make something so much bigger than it really is. When you are on national TV and all, and have an ego as big as Texas and have delusions of being POTUS, yourself.

You’re an idiot. Go sit in the corner and suck your thumb Randal.

¿

Johnny S. McCain promised us that he had a lot of questions he wanted answers to. He didn’t ask any. He just pontificated. The old war-horse who never met a war he didn’t want to send somebody’s kids to fight (so they could enjoy all the fun he had), claims that Ambassador Stevens told him personally that security was not up to snuff in Benghazi. Whom did he tell?

No one as far as anyone can ascertain. And how about those Republican holds on funds for security in Libya and other places? John had nothing to say about that either.

Same old Johnny. Just a lot of angry old complaints that amount to “I woulda been a better President than him, I would have!”

Old record, John, and it’s beginning to skip. I think the record is scratched.

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I loves me some conspiracies.

So good with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

Nobody is better at the game of conspiracy hunting that that dear boy Glenn (where went my fame?) Beck.

Beck, if you didn’t know, runs that rag The Blaze, which is on the sleaze factor one point up and over from WorldNetDaily, and one point down and over from the other twin bunker Breitbart, home of the Breitbots, which is an oxymoron, cuz nobody there is in any way deserving of the adjective “bright”.

Beck having found no fun in Texas, is back in the Big Apple trying to re-invent himself. And since Glenn is all about conspiracies, his latest is something of a tongue-twister. So hold on to your hats, private parts, or the porcelain throne as it fits your predilections.

Beck suggests that we must rid ourselves of all those OLD Conspiracies, they being the birther issues, and the Sandy Hook conspiracy. Sandy Hook conspiracy your gasp? What is that about? Oh, didn’t you hear? The Obama administration did Sandy Hook. Killed those little kids just to use it as a focus for taking away your guns! Boy, now it makes sense right?

Oh.

Well, Beck, says, whoa, you know, how many people would have to be involved in such a plan–to shoot up a school, and all that? No, that’s CRAZY!

Beck says, that all these conspiracy theories are just things that Obama USES to deflect your attention so that you don’t see the REAL conspiracies. I know, I know. Let me start that again. Slowly.

The crazy theories exist out there in the ether. And Obama grabs onto them, and feeds them surreptitiously to keep your conspiracy-lovin’ noggin occupied. All the while, the REAL conspiracy is going on behind your back. You know the one I mean–all the NEW WORLD ORDER ILLUMINATI DRACONIAN PLANS BY THE CAPITALIST-HATING, FASCIST/SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST/ LOVIN’ O-B-A-M-A.

Glad you know the truth? I bet you are. Shine up that AK-15, cuz baby you are gonna be using it soon against those black helicopters headin’ your way.

Don’t believe me? Think I made it up? Ha!

So, now that your mind is functionally unable to do anything else but count dust bunnies under the bed, I’ll leave you dear reader until tomorrow.

Or, leave an incoherent, but pithy, and funny, if at all possible, comment.

I’ve been reading Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand’s epic novel that has become the spiritual guide for the likes of Rand Paul and Paul Ryan. They, so we understand, have made it required reading for their staffs.

I’m only about half way through (it’s over 1,000 pages), and I can already tell that anyone who thinks this is some kind of model of how to run a country is, well, not exactly playing with a full deck.

Ayn Rand was an immigrant from Russia, and pretty much that’s all you need to know. Her thinking is utterly shaped by her hatred of Communism and those who brought it upon the earth–the intellectual elites in the form of “progressives.”

Her heroes in the book are all brilliant industrialists, those who work because they see the only virtue as being the quest to create. It is the purpose of existence.

Juxtaposed against them are the progressives, those who teach and those who are not capable of creating. They pursue as their virtue love of humanity and the need to help one’s brother.

Where it all goes horribly wrong is in the extrapolations. The good guys are perfectly good and the bad guys are perfectly bad. It gets down to even sex. For the good guys sex is a million fireworks going off at once as to perfect people unite in creative glory. For the bad guys, sex is that dirty little animal drive reserved for faceless men and women in back alleys.

In a nutshell, Rand creates draws out the pitfalls of the nanny society to such absurd extensions and the glories of unbridled capitalism to inhuman heights, that they ultimately are laughable. That anyone could take this as a serious likelihood worldwide, is indeed quite juvenile in their thinking. Indeed, they are incapable of anything resembling critical thought.

The fact that most philosophers have rejected her theories of “objectivism” relying on utter reason as the basis for all knowledge, and her belief that only a pure laissez-faire capitalism can protect individual rights, hasn’t stopped those who champion her cause. Of course it is a rather convenient excuse for corporate greed. And surely she would have nodded at Gecko’s shout: “Greed is good.” She promoted selfishness a proper and “good” thing after all.

Ironically, she was very much against religion of any kind, finding it failed the “reason” test. I say ironic because today her most ardent supporters are the know-nothing TeaNutz®. A healthy percentage of them are also ultra right-wing Christianists who wish in the end to form a theocratic state modeled after their strange interpretation of the bible. Ayn would have shuddered and be repulsed by such notions. Given that the average TeaNutz® imbiber has neither read Rand nor has a clue of anything she wrote, this is pretty understandable. You can imagine that the GOP elite is not rushing to inform them either.

She would have whole-heartedly endorsed the idea of calling industrialists as “job creators” since she found workers as parasites, necessary ones to be sure. Among her friends and presumably fellow travelers is one Alan Greenspan. Other admirers are Mark Cuban, owner of the Mavericks and John P. Mackey, owner of Whole Foods.

It is not hard to extrapolate from her portrayal of the wealthy as the true “victims” of society to the idea that it is a near-religious sin to think of taxing these superior folk. That is essentially the Republican mantra. After all, they are the fountainhead (pun intended) of the successful state.

I have to admit that I am enjoying the read. I love tomes (I read Aztec for god’s sake!), and this one is about par for the course, wildly boring in spots, full of soapbox rhetoric that passes as “conversation” and a plot that is fairly obvious. I am about half way through and long ago “guessed” the outcome. Still, the characters are interesting and like I said, I like these kinds things. (I’ve also read War and Peace TWICE.)

Still, reading the book or even reading a Wikipedia bio on Rand explains a good deal of what would otherwise be inexplicable regarding the GOP. What is amusing most of all is that the silly TeaNutz® continue to have no clue. It is quite clear that the GOP elite neither cares nor is interested in pursuing the social aspects of the trailer-livin’ right. They are prepared to give lip service and that only. Rand was in favor of abortion rights, she had an open marriage, and she as I said, had no use for religion whatsoever.

Much of the “shadow” GOP feels the same. This is simply about money, and making sure that money goes to the right place and thus power is retained where it should be. The little folks are just to be patted on the head, thrown a crumb or two once in a while, and assured that “efforts are being made” to effect a moral government based on the bible. To the degree that a number of them feel that this is “ordained” by their unique interpretation of the bible, that is well, gravy.

I don’t say read the book. You may not have the fortitude to sign up for that long a haul, but do at least familiarize yourself with its basic outline and the life of its writer. And do pay a bit closer attention to those who promote this science fiction as “where we are headed” if a certain black man continues to guide the ship of state.

I could have passed the entire day without even knowing, but the MSM in its infinite infantile judgment, of course made sure I did.

It’s Friday the 13th. *yawn*

So, okay, I looked it up, frankly having no real idea what was behind it, other than it was a day of “spectacular” bad luck.

*yawn*

The explanation, which you are free to read here, was both stupid and boring.

I awoke with a mission. Which isn’t any big deal, it just means I had plans. So I scurried to get a load of wash in and running, and got to my routine stuff. Then I made spring rolls. The crab Rangoon turned out so great that I was emboldened to try my hand at the spring rolls. They are chillin’ in the freezer as we speak. We are having Chinese in a couple of weeks, and I’ll give you my opinion of how they turned out. And perhaps a recipe, but they are fairly standard–meaning you can put in about anything you wish. More on that later, as I said.

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There are times in this world when God blesses us with a perfect identifier.

Rep. Louis Gohmert, (R-TX), looks like an idiot. His name is idiotic. He is an idiot. Thanks God, for the perfect storm.

Whatcha wanna bet that John will be wearing some striped clothing sometime soon?

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Rand Paul (R-KY) says that universal healthcare is akin to slavery. It forces him (the doctor) to be enslaved to caring for people even if he doesn’t want to. As was pointed out to the man of small brain, um…lawyers are provided free of charge to the indigent (and yes, the court can assign an attorney without their agreement to do a pro-bono case.

Did you know that Rand changed his name to Rand in honor of Ayn Rand? Ya know, the woman who had no use for the working class and poor because they are just parasites? Yeah, you go RAND. [h/t Under the Lobsterscope]

Actually Randy, slavery is not being able to live your life in a meaningful way because every damn dime you have must be devoted to paying bastards like you who want to charge whatever the richest can bear. Just sayin’.

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Did you hear about the mock horror expressed at Fox over the rapper Common? Turns out he had some lyrics that Foxy Duh “interpreted” as anti-cop and violent. Course most of that is sheer nonsense. What was best was Jon Stewart’s smack down of Sean Hannity. Go to the Daily Show and look up the video from I think Wednesday. Hannity had decried Common, and of course implied that his invite to the White House to read his poetry is really cuz the President and the First Ladies, are violent gangsters themselves. Which is what Hannity wants you to believe about all black folk.

Stewart showed with video that Hannity would defend the president against vicious attacks, should there be any. Turns out there was. Ted Nugent made some pretty nasty remarks of violence against the President and Hannity publicly said that Nugent was his friend and he would not condemn his violent remarks.

Yeah Sean, you pathetic excuse for a human being.

By the by, if you didn’t see Stewart’s rap smack down, you really should. He simply skewers Foxy. It’s classic.

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For those of you in need of a Sarah fix, I understand that there is a fun hash tag on Twitter called: #palinrapfacts. Have fun with that.

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One of the funniest little asides I read over at the Blaze the other day was this, and I do paraphrase:

“What’s all this crap about the beautification of Pope John Paul II I keep hearing about? Could somebody explain why he needs prettying up? “

Um that would be beatification dear, not beautification. And try a dictionary. I suspect you haven’t spent time with one of those in many a year.

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Ya gotta watch the slime balls at all times, cuz they will slip by when no one is looking. Maybe you heard that the Koch bro’s have endowed a couple of chairs at Florida State University. Yeah, well wealthy people do that all the time. Except this time there are strings, which amount to the Koch’s buying a way into teaching a type of economics that favors the rich and their way of doing business. Read it and weep, and send your kids elsewhere.

I don’t know about you, but opening my reader each day is like opening a Christmas present. I hope for something fantastic, and am usually happily rewarded. Here and there I get a piece of coal-a day where nobody is saying anything interesting to me.

But that seldom happens, and on a glorious day such as today with the sun shining brightly, the birds singing with exuberance, and the breeze so gentle as a adolescent kiss, I open it with anticipation.

Let’s see what we find!

I heard about this days ago. Mostly it was about the open mike and the audience members who made fun of Sarah (that woman is an idiot) Palinator’s lack of ummm intelligence? But, speaking to a California college assembly (why in God’s earth would anyone invite her?), she gaffed as only our Sarah could. Sarah has a penchant for hiring old high school buds (equally stupid as herself, which goes without saying. Apparently one is her FACT checker.

The lunacy continues with Rand Paul refusing to answer how old the earth is. By refusing of course, he admits that he is crazy as a mop head. Rand, my man, we don’t care if you are off by even a few million years, reasonable minds may differ. But if you refuse, we suspect you are off by a few billion, and that my dizzy friend makes you a no brainer. Unless of course you are merely trying to fake your way into gaining support from people you don’t really agree with. Sorta like you faked a board certification?

I’m feeling a trip to Washington as in DC is in order. Those GOP senators who are “interrogating” Elena Kagan must be in need of more bullets to shoot themselves in the foot. The constant barrage of “Justice Thurgood Marshall was not a proper judge” at Kagan who clerked for him, is suicidal at best. Well, a worst it is still suicidal. Apparently there will be a sign at all future voting booths–only white people can vote for Republicans. All else, vote for the Dems. I will take that as a good thing.

Temptation! Yikes. We all face it, whether it be food, drugs, booze, men, women, gambling. Whatever the thing that calls to you, beckons with seductive winking, luring you into danger, well we all face it or them. Balance in Me has some good ideas for meeting and beating your temptations.

The weather is a bit strange these days. Par for the course in the spring. Unless you live somewhere sane, which I don’t. Sane places are ones like Hawaii and Tahiti, and well, you get the idea right?

Places that freakin’ don’t change! Warm, sunny and that is all. Rain during the night as needed. I haf to talk to God about that. If the fundies are right and he created it by design, then heck I got some really good suggestions for the next one.

Warm, sunny. Got that?

But then, I’ve been told that I should be thankful I have a planet, and to shut up.

So, here’s what I think you should be reading today. How’s that for arrogance?

Michelle Bachmann has been pallin’ around with terrorists. Yep. So has the rest of the crazy GOP (Grown Over Putzes). It’s got to do with their favor(eye)T ChrisTan rock bands applauds Muslims as “at least they are upholding the law” by killing homosexuals. Do some folks not know enough to stop breathing?

They are eatin’ their own, they are eatin’ their own! Just gets me all gushy inside thinking about it. Carly Fiorini didn’t think it enough to catclaw Boxer’s hairdo, she also committed a mortal sin by dissin’ the Hannity! I have pretty much concluded that all Rethuglian women politicians constitute a third sex, they soitinly ain’t in mine. Yuck Yuck.